Weekly Reader: Circe by Madeleine Miller; Homer's Odyssey Femme Fatale Gets Modern Makeover

Weekly Reader: Circe by Madeleine Miller; Homer's Odyssey Femme Fatale Gets Modern Makeover

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: There are many colorful female characters in Greek Mythology: Athena Goddess of Wisdom, Aphrodite Goddess of Love and Beauty, Artemis Goddess of Moon and the Hunt, Hera Goddess of Marriage and Zeus’s eternally jealous wife, The Muses Goddesses of the Arts, Atalanta the fastest mortal woman and the lone female of Jason and the Argonauts, Medea the beguiling witch that helped Jason get the golden fleece, Helen the “face that launched a thousand ships” and inspired the Trojan War, Cassandra who was given the gift of prophecy but was never to be believed, and many many others.

One of the most interesting is Circe, one of the fascinating female characters found in Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. During his twenty year voyage home, Odysseus and his men become stranded on Aeaea the island of Circe, the beautiful beguiling witch. With a wave of her wand, Circe turns Odysseus's men into pigs but Odysseus remains pig free and forces her to change them back. She restores his men with the proviso that Odysseus remain and become her lover. After one year, Odysseus and his crew leave Aeaea and head to the sea for more adventures.

Madeleine Miller's novel, Circe tells the story of the seductive sorceress making her more than a byword for glamorous treachery. In Miller's capable hands, Circe becomes a fully formed three-dimensional woman of deep thought and feeling.

One way that Miller develops Circe's character is to insert her into myths in which she was absent. Since the Greek deities family ties are large, that is an easy thing to do. In fact, Circe's book becomes a veritable Who's Who Among The Greek Pantheon.

Circe is the fourth child of Helios, the Titan God of the Sun and Perse, the Naiad guardian of streams and fountains. Because of her yellow eyes and thin screechy voice, Circe is often bullied by her family particularly her older siblings, Pasiphae and Perses. She states that there wasn't a name for what she is, so everyone derides her as strange, ugly, and stupid. Circe is the outsider in her family.


Of course her families are marginalized as well. As Titans, they were the gods that Zeus defeated to win his position as the king of the Olympians. With the Titans considered outcasts, it's unfortunately natural that Circe's family would take their frustrations out on the family member who is stranger than the rest: Circe.

Because of Circe's outsider status within her family, she feels an affinity for others who are equally marginalized. She delivers nectar to an imprisoned Prometheus and bonds with Aeetes, her younger brother who is even more derided than she is.

When she falls in love with Glaucos, a sailor, Circe discovers her hidden power. The ill and injured Glaucos longs to be a god so despite family objection, Circe is able to use flowers created from the spilled blood of Kronos, the defeated Titan, to transform the man of her dreams into the god of his.

Unfortunately, Glaucos’s godification gives him a swelled head and he dumps Circe for Scylla, a doting nymph/fan girl. Using her brand new abilities, a jealous Circe transforms Scylla into a hideous sea monster. Scylla retreats to a strait across from the Charybdis whirlpool which both are traps for unwary sea travelers. (There is a reason why the Greek version of getting caught between a rock and a hard place is called “getting caught between Scylla and Charybdis.”)


After this incident, Circe reveals her abilities to her family and is exiled to Aeaea. It is apparent that Helios exiled her not because of concern for what she did to Glaucos and Scylla. He could care less about them. He is intimidated by his daughter having a power that he doesn't understand or know about. Once she is exiled, Circe learns for the first time that there is a name for what she is: pharmakis, witch.


Circe is a character of great emotion and intellect. Her emotions such as her jealousy towards Scylla causes her to do things that she later regrets. However, she has the intelligence to study sorcery and herbalism and use her abilities to turn others into their true selves. While getting exiled may seem like torture, for her it gives her a chance to be independent and explore her personal power. The exile actually makes her more powerful than if she stayed with the Titans.


While on the island, Circe has a very active love life. First, she gets involved with Hermes, the Trickster/Messenger God. When their relationship ends badly, they become sworn enemies.

Another lover is Daedalus, the architect and inventor. The two's mixture of art and invention, science and sorcery compliment each other. She is moved by the widowed Daedalus's devotion to his son, Icarus and is left desolate when the boy dies after flying too close to the sun and his remorseful father succumbs to grief shortly thereafter.

These relationships show Circe as someone who is receptive to the idea of love but is not ready to surrender the independence that she has fought for. In her exile, she has grown to love her studies of magic and how it provides with her own strength, power, and significance.


Circe also gets involved in the affairs of her siblings and watches as her sister, Pasiphae and brother, Aeetes become drunk with power. They use everyone even their children to get and remain on top. Circe watches as Pasiphae, Queen of Crete and wife of King Minos, gives birth to the Minotaur and explains the circumstances to the creature's conception. (“I f$#@-d a bull!”, Pasiphae declares plainly.)

The Minotaur is sentenced to the Labyrinth where he is neglected by everyone except his half-sister, Ariadne who later also rejects him to side with her lover, Theseus. Pasiphae uses the Minotaur as a killing machine. He is her means to gain control over gods and mortals, including her husband.

Aeetes also uses his daughter, Medea in a ruthless power grab. As King of Colchis, he is the holder of the Golden Fleece and is as cruel and neglectful of his daughter, Medea, as their father, Helios was to him and Circe. It's not a surprise that Medea would leave that toxic environment to join her lover, Jason. However, the younger witch, Medea is blind to her paramour’s flaws as they hide out on Aunt Circe's island (figuring fellow witch Circe would understand.). However, Circe recognizes Jason's vanity and how he dismissed Medea and realizes that he does not truly love the girl. Circe sees Medea will be miserable with him. Of course the myths of Jason and the Argonauts and the play, Medea prove her right when Jason dumps her to marry a princess leaving her to kill their children rather than letting them be exiled or sold to slavery.


Circe contrasts with her siblings because her power is internal. She doesn't seek out the trappings of wealth and privilege that Aeetes and Pasiphae have. She has her powers and her island and she is pleased with that. Unlike them, she is not in fear of an avenging enemy, a thieving hero, or a disloyal spouse. Circe is her own person.

Of course the emotional crux is provided during Circe's fatal meeting with Odysseus. Right before he arrives, Circe practices on a fleet of sailors, some which intend to rape her, by turning them into pigs. As for what happened to them, let's just say that Circe develops a fondness for ham of the sea.


Odysseus and Circe go through their typical meeting and dalliance, but Odysseus is hardly the hero of Homer's epic story. This is Circe's tale and Odysseus is much more sinister than is usually portrayed. When he tells of his adventures, it's clear that he loves the sound of his own voice. There is also a ruthlessness and deception in his manner which suggests instability and that he enjoyed killing and mind games far more than he admitted.

The book offers the theory that Odysseus isn't exactly in a hurry to go home and his 20 year exile might be more by choice than by the ruling of the gods.


This potential instability in Odysseus's character is confirmed when he returns to his home of Ithaca. When Odysseus's wife, Penelope and son, Telemachus visit Aeaea after Odysseus's death, they reveal how rocky his return was.

Since he spent so much time away, Odysseus was often restless and neglectful of his kingdom. He had PTSD from his voyages and often attacked his family in a frenzied state. He spent more time looking out at the sea in longing.

Instead of hero, Miller's writing subverts Odysseus's character and turns him into maladjusted sociopath.


Telemachus and Penelope aren't the only ones that Odysseus screws over. Before he leaves Aeaea, Odysseus gets Circe pregnant. She gives birth to a son, Telegonus and strives to protect him from the wrath of the gods particularly an irate Athena who was Odysseus's protector.

Circe builds a magical barrier around Aeaea to keep anyone from coming in but it also keeps anyone from going out.

Circe's protection does not sit well with Telegonus. His and Circe's relationship is strained because he longs for adventure and travel, things that his mother denies. While Circe is worried about her son, there is also an underlying desperation as if Circe wants to hold onto Telegonus because she feels the need for someone to love and respect her.

However, the more Circe tries to keep Telegonus near her, the more he pushes away. Circe then has to confront Telegonus, Odysseus's family, and her own past sins in some heady magical confrontations that require all of her abilities and strength.

Madeleine Miller wrote Circe as a very complex character, one of great feeling, longing, regret, and passion. She saw more femme than fatale, more soul than seductress, and more of an independent woman of great strength and power than the beautiful deadly witch of Homer.